Former Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic was released from a Swedish prison on Tuesday after serving two-thirds of her sentence for war crimes committed between July 1991 and December 1992. Plavsic voluntarily surrendered herself to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2001 and was indicted on …

Director of the UN secretary-generals Climate Change Support Team Janos Pasztor said Monday that a December UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark may not produce a treaty. Pasztor suggested that the success of the conference would be difficult to judge without the US Congress passing a climate bill and industrialized nations determining acceptable carbon …

The US Department of State (DOS) released its annual Report on International Religious Freedom Monday, criticizing Islamic countries for limiting religious expression. The report found that countries such as North Korea and Iran have attempted to prevent religious defamation as a way to limit religious expression. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton …

The European Union (EU) announced Tuesday that it is lifting the final sanctions still in place against Uzbekistan in connection with the May 2005 clashes in Andijan. The decision was made in the face of resolute opposition due to Uzbekistan's poor human rights record. The EU statement says: With …

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced Tuesday that the two Tibetan prisoners sentenced to death for their role in the March 2008 Lhasa riots have been executed. The Chinese government confirmed the executions after Tibetan rights groups first broke the news, but did not release any …

UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Martin Scheinin said Monday that all Guantanamo Bay detainees should be brought before US federal courts for trial by the January 22 deadline for closure set by US President Barack Obama. Scheinin said that the detainees should not be held indefinitely and …

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari on Monday renewed calls for a formal UN inquiry to investigate those responsible for bombings in the country following twin suicide bombings in Baghdad Sunday, which are believed to have killed more than 150. Zebari asked the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to appoint a special …

The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) on Monday upheld the convictions of three former rebel leaders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), in what is to be the final proceedings of the Freetown-based court. The SCSL upheld the convictions of former RUF Interim Leader Issa Hassan Sesay and …

Judge John Bates of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday dismissed without prejudice a petition for habeas corpus filed on behalf of a Guantanamo Bay detainee after the detainee refused to meet with his appointed counsel to authorize the petition. The court dismissed the petition, …